Cyclops
by sunsetbabe17
Summary: ONE-SHOT. Red as far as the eye could see.


Disclaimer: Don't own anything. Some parts are directly taken from X-Men the Last Stand a novelization by Chris Claremont. _Italics are flashbacks._

**Cyclops**

Scott Summers sat in his dark room; his shoulders shaking but the tears could not be seen streaming down his face because his powers destroyed them before they even had the chance to leave his eyes.

Powers he had no control over due to head trauma suffered in his childhood.

_A young Scott stumbled to the back of the plane as it shook in distress. They were rapidly falling no matter how hard his father tried to keep them in the air. _

"_There's only two," Scott cried in alarm as he finally reached the emergency parachutes, finding that half had been destroyed as the plane rocked and burned from the lightning and the rain._

"_It's alright son," his mother reassured him as she helped her father keep the plane upright for as long as they could._

_Scott gulped, "Come here, Alex," he strapped his younger brother into one of the parachutes and then put the remaining one on himself._

_Approaching the hole in the plane Scott took one last glance at his parents and knew it would be the last time he would see them, "Goodbye, I love you…"but his words were ripped away in the wind as he was sucked out of the plane, grabbing his brother's hand at the last second._

_His arm burned as the wind tossed him around, but he held tight to his brother's hand, not wanting to lose the only family he had left. The rain had soaked him through in a matter of seconds and visibility was minimal._

"_No!" Scott screamed as he could feel Alex's fingers slipping from his._

"_Scott!" Alex shouted as he was ripped away and Scott soon lost sight of him in the storm. Tears mingled with the rain running down his face._

_It was impossible to steer in this weather and Scott prayed that he at least landed on solid ground and not in the ocean they had been flying over._

"_No! No! No!" Scott kicked his legs as he tried to avoid the cluster of trees. Seeing that it was useless he threw his hands up to protect his face as best he could against the branches. Soon all went black as he crash landed._

"_Ugh," the boy groaned as he came to. He breathed a sigh of relief, he was alive! But wait, something was wrong, everything was black. He couldn't see!_

_His hands flew to his face and that's when he felt the bandages covering his eyes._

"_Don't!" but the warning came too late as he pulled the bandages away from his eyes. The ceiling came tumbling down around him as a beam of red burst forth from his eyes._

_He quickly shut them and turned away._

From then on everything was red. The blue sky, the green grass, the world around him was now a violent red. He had to rely on others to let him know if he was dressed funny, if the colors clashed because he couldn't tell. It was all red to him.

When driving, he had to rely on the fact that green was on the bottom of the stoplight and red was on the top. It was not "Green means go, red means stop," otherwise he would never get anywhere.

Beautiful sunsets enjoyed with Jean were just different shades of red to him, but he enjoyed them because Jean did and he liked the time he was able to spend with her, just the two of them.

He knew what he had to do. It was like his love was haunting him. Quickly standing up he threw some things in a duffel bag and strode from the room. He had to return to where it all went down, Alkali Lake.

"Hey, Scott!" Logan called as he passed the other man, "They were looking for you downstairs. You didn't show."

"What do you care?"

"I had to cover your ass for starters!"

"I didn't ask!"

"No," Logan interrupted, calm in the face of Scott's anger, "you didn't. The _professor_ did." And Logan may not like Scott but he did feel like he owed the professor. "I was just passing through."

Scott didn't bat an eye. "So? Pass through, Logan. It's what you do best."

Logan paused unsure how to proceed. He knew the man was still grieving over the loss of the woman they both loved.

"Look, Scott, I know how you feel-"

This time Scott cut him off, "Don't!"

"When Jean died-"

"I said, _don't_!"

Logan stepped in close, and reached out to Scott with an open hand, "Maybe it's time for us to move on."

Scott didn't give an inch, "Not everyone heals as fast as you-_bub!"_

Storming out of the Institute Scott hopped on his motorcycle and rode away.

Standing on an outcropping Scott looked over the area he had last seen Jean. It was now buried under water. Being here wasn't helping; he could still hear her in his head.

"Stop," he cried, "Stop it!" and he ripped off his glasses and let loose with one of his optic blasts, parting the water like Moses parting the Red Sea.

Spent he fell to his knees and placed his glasses back onto his face, but the water was still churning, steam floating up into the air. Then, Jean was suddenly standing before him.

"What-but how?" he staggered to his feet.

"Dunno," Jean shrugged, just as confused as he was. He ran to her and took her in his arms. He didn't care how she was here, he was just happy to have her back.

"God, Jean I missed you."

She pulled back, "I want to see your eyes, Scott."

"What?"

"Take off your glass," Jean gently commanded and reached up to pull them off his face.

He stilled her hands.

"Jean you know my glasses and my visor are the only things that stop my optic blasts."

"I can control them. _Trust_ me," and he did with his life. So he let go of her wrists and she pulled off his glasses, creating a telekinetic film over his eyes that kept the dangerous beams of concussive force at bay.

He saw red. Jean's beautiful, fiery red hair and he finally looked into her emerald green eyes. For the first time in what felt like ages he smiled.

Their lips met in a passionate kiss. Scott was bursting with happiness and he was so full of joy that he didn't even realize what was happening at first. And then there was pain, excruciating pain as he was ripped apart at the molecular level.

But he smiled through the pain and continued to hold the love of his life. At least he had seen the world for the way that it was one last time, thanks to Jean. He couldn't have asked for a better ending. It wasn't Jean's fault. He had to be strong for her. He was her friend, her lover, her husband. But most of all he was her leader. The one she looked to for answers. The one she leaned on.

He was Cyclops. 


End file.
